May 31, 2004

Avian Flu Discovered At Texas Farm

Pilgrim's Pride Crop (PPC) disclosed that avian influenza has been discovered in a flock of chickens owned by one of its contract growers.
 
In a press release Friday, the poultry company said the 52-week-old breeder flock, which laid eggs for hatching, has been destroyed.
 
The farm housing the flock was in northeast Texas, west of Sulphur Springs about six miles from another commercial farm.
 
Pilgrim's Pride said the infection was discovered during routine blood tests and that the animals showed few clinical signs of infection.
 
The company asserted that could mean the infection was a low-pathogenic avian influenza. Low pathogenic avian flu causes no threat to human health, according to a Web site run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
However, the Texas Animal Health Commission said it will be a week to 10 days before tests can confirm the flu has low pathogenicity, or unlikely to kill the birds.
 
The commission said it did not know what caused the latest outbreak in its own press release Friday.
 
In February, outbreaks of other strains of the avian flu in Gonzales County, Texas, several hundred miles from Sulphur Springs, and in the Northeast prompted a number of countries to restrict poultry imports from parts of the U.S.
 
Even so, the poultry ban was not comprehensive enough to cut into Pilgrim's Pride's
earnings, according to Clifton Brown, the company's vice chairman. Brown said Friday in an interview that only a ban by major importers on all U.S. chicken imports would materially affect the company's earnings.
 
Assuming the latest outbreak is isolated, Brown said he expects it will also have no material impact on the company's earnings.
 
Pilgrim's Pride is projecting fiscal-year earnings of $1.65 to $1.85 a share excluding restructuring charges of up to 69 cents related to its turkey operations.
 
In the fiscal year ended September 27, the company earned $1.36 a share.
 
Pilgrim's Pride stock was down 3.8%, or $1.06 to $26.81 in recent trading on the New York Stock Exchange.